1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an ink jet recording method and an ink jet recording apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to an ink jet recording method and an ink jet recording apparatus in which a multi-colored image can be recorded on a recording medium using plural kinds of inks each having a different color, and moreover, a monochromatic color can be recorded on the recording medium using a monochromatic ink.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a multi-colored image (that is called a color image) is recorded on a recording medium by employing an ink jet recording method, four kinds of inks each having a different color, i.e., yellow ink, magenta ink, cyan ink and black ink have been hitherto used. Thus, each recording operation is achieved using these inks by ejecting ink droplets to the recording medium and then mixing them with each other on the recording medium to exhibit a desired mixed color. When each ejected ink droplet has a small weight, i.e., a small quantity of ink is ejected from a recording head, a density of recorded color image is reduced. On the contrary, when a large quantity of ink is ejected from the recording head, a part of the recorded image having inks mixed with each other to exhibit a mixed color (i.e., mixed color obtained by mixing yellow ink with magenta ink, mixed color obtained by mixing magenta ink with cyan ink, and mixed color obtained by mixing cyan ink with yellow ink) and the boundary between recorded parts each having a different mixed color exhibits a largely stained state (that is called a malfunction of bleeding), resulting in a quality of recorded color image being degraded. In the case that a certain image is formed on a recording medium with a small quantity of ejected ink, a density of recorded image exhibiting a mixed color is excessively reduced. For this reason, it is necessary to preliminarily determine an optimum quantity of ink ejected from the recording head without any occurrence of a malfunction such as color-staining, bleeding or the like before a recording operation is performed with plural kinds of inks each having a different color. For example, when each recording operation is achieved with a recorded image density of 360 dpi, it is preferably acceptable that a quantity of ink ejected from the recording head is set to 40 ng.
However, in the case that a monochromatic image is formed on the recording medium using ink having a single specific color, when a quantity of ejected ink is set to be equal to that at the time when a color image is formed on the recording medium, a density of recorded monochromatic image is reduced. Thus, there arises a problem that an optimum quality of recorded image can not be obtained with ink having the foregoing color.